Expert: Make way for ducklings' parents

A dozen black-bellied whistling ducklings enjoys cracker crumbs while hanging out in Tom Moss' garage in the Great Northwest area of San Antonio on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. Moss said that when he went to shut his irrigation system around 8 a.m., he found the ducklings minus their mother.

Photo By Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News

In 2011, a dozen black-bellied whistling ducklings appeared in Tom Moss' garage in the Greater Northwest area, so he called animal services. The ducklings eventually made it to a wildlife rescue center.

Photo By Jerry Lara/glara@express-news.net

The fuzzy visitors are easier to count in a line formation.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News file photo

Experts say ducklings' parents eventually will return to their seemingly abandoned offspring.

Photo By JERRY LARA/Jerry Lara

A dozen ducklings hangs out in Tom Moss' garage in the Greater Northwest area of San Antonio, Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. Moss said that when he went to shut his irrigation system around 8 a.m., he found the ducklings minus the hen. He called animal services and was awaiting their arrival.

Photo By Jerry Lara/glara@express-news.net

Great Northwest area resident Tom Moss found twelve little ducks in his garage when he went out to shut off his irrigation system Monday morning, Aug. 1, 2011.

SAN ANTONIO — Black-bellied whistling ducklings can't tell people to leave them alone, so Lynn Cuny is making the attempt for them.

Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, which Cuny, 62, founded in 1977, has seen an increasing number of the ducklings brought in to her facilities. People are doing the right thing once they pick up the ducklings, Cuny said, like bringing them to people who know what they're doing, but it's best not to pick up ducklings in the first place.

“Once the ducklings grow big enough to leave the nest, they follow their parents,” said Cuny, the current president of the nonprofit organization. “They'll cross roads or be by someone's house when people will surprise them, and the parents fly off.”

But the ducklings' parents will always come back, Cuny said.

The problem, according to Cuny and others at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, is that people tend to ignore the ducklings' parents and instead just see the ducklings. Once people see the youngsters, they also tend to think it's best to pick them up and rescue them.

Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation executive director Cyndi Nelson said the duckling problem has been ongoing, dating back about 20 years, but just recently there has been an uptick.

June, July and August are when the ducklings first leave their nests, so that's when Cuny said is the issue is most prevalent.

Two separate groups of a dozen or more ducklings were transported to the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation sanctuary within the last 10 days, Nelson said.

But Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation said the best thing is for people to leave the ducklings alone — because they won't be left alone for long.

“Parents don't drop their kids off at the mall and never pick them up,” Cuny said.